Request for help from the techsperts on the board

[zanshin]

This is a completely not T&T question but I know we have a lot of tech savvy Trolls at the Bridge and I am hoping for help, as my skills lie elsewhere (probably, yet to fully identify them )

I am getting a dvd drive (that will play regular dvds as well as be writable etc) for a friend with a Mac Book Pro, M1 2020, chip Apple M1, macOS monterey, 8GB RAM.

I am trying to avoid the apple company one as that is more than twice the price of others, but it does seem that alot of the dvd drives out there are not mac compatible, according to the net.

Can anyone suggest a good option for me/ Bonus karma for a link.

Thanks folks. Help me Obi Wan Trolls - you are my only hope.

[Aramis of Erak]

The compatibility issue is likely software; the hardware itself is able to interface, but there may be no driver to talk to it.

[ProfGremlin]

Hey, zanshin. How about this:

ROOFULL External CD DVD +/-RW Drive USB 3.0 Type-C

I'll admit, I don't recognize the brand but it has a fair number of reviews and seem decently rated even when considering the rating with a handful of salt. It seems to need to have the proper region code set for the DVDs you'd be working with. There could be a power issue to consider. Some reviews of the Rooful unit suggest that they needed to have the MacBook plugged into power, others that it worked fine without that and/or with the supplied extra power cord. Apparently, the unit will not register on MacOS without a disk inserted and read.

There were a couple of others that I looked at but the end user experience was simply not consistent enough to warrant suggesting it.

[zanshin]

Thank you ProfGremlin, really appreciate your research on this. As aramis stated, the most likely issue is an interaction with Apples proprietary software and your assurance is invaluable.